1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to air bearing magnetic head sliders used in disk drives and in particular to head sliders with configured air bearing surfaces.
2. Prior Art
A magnetic recording head assembly used in a disk drive typically incorporates an air bearing slider carrying at least one magnetic transducer that flies over the surface of a magnetic disk for transducing data signals. One objective for improving the transducing relationship between the magnetic transducer and the magnetic disk is to provide a low flying height or very close spacing between the transducer and the disk during operation of the disk drive. When used with very narrow transducing gaps and very thin magnetic films, the close spacing allows high density signals to be recorded, thereby producing high storage capacity recording. It is also desirable to maintain a substantially constant flying height and a tightly controlled pitch of the slider relative to the disk surface so that the signal being processed from the transducer is accurate. To realize controlled pitch and constant flying height, pitch stiffness of the air bearing slider must be controlled.